Disgraced former Oklahoma senator faces new charges

Oklahoma state Sen. Ralph Shortey, a month before his arrest. Sue Ogrocki, AP.

In March of this year, Oklahoma State Sen. Ralph Shortey, a right-wing Republican, was all the news after being arrested for being in a hotel room with a underaged male. The Cleveland County, Okla. District Attorney filed three state felony charges against Shortey.

The senator resigned from his seat soon after the arrest was made public. Since then, there hadn’t been much news about the disgraced legislator, until late Wednesday. “A federal grand jury returned a four-count indictment against two-term former Republican state Sen. Ralph Shortey,” the Associated Press reported.

The federal indictment “shows that Shortey was charged in federal court with two counts of transportation of child pornography, production of child pornography and child sex trafficking,” according to Oklahoma City station KFOR.

The federal charges are the result of an FBI search of Shortey’s home.

“The two transportation of child pornography charges stem from allegations that he used a smartphone to send a video involving a ‘prepubescent girl’ and videos involving young boys from an America Online email address in October 2013,” reported OKC station KOCO.

“Shortey faces mandatory sentences for the counts,” said OKC’s Fox News affiliate. “The child pornography counts carry a minimum of five years, production of child pornography has a minimum of 15 years and the sex trafficking count carries a minimum of 10 years.”

For more details on Shortey’s original arrest in March, view these Gayly stories: